LAKE BOGA - AND A murmuration

Let's go straight to that murmuration...we stayed two nights at Lake Boga en route to Mildura, and on the second night, thousands of starlings congregated on the powerlines and absolutely put on a show. Here is an excerpt!

Lake Boga is part of a string of lakes in central Victoria, and on the way we also visited Reedy Lake, as did Burke and Wills many years earlier. Our trek was less ambitious and happily less tragic. If you're enthralled with B&W, as I am, I recommend Peter Fitzsimmons' gripping account, available here. Anyway, Reedy Lake is now an ibis rookery, and we saw whistling kites nesting and wheeling about, and the white browed babbler (another lifer for us).

We also spent some time at Tresco West, a rich fruit growing area just the other side of the highway. It was a difficult day for birds and photography - with wind, heat and glare. Even so, we saw

• greater blue bonnet parrots,
  
• our very first rainbow bee-eater (we didn't even know this until we got home and developed the photos),
  
• families of white-winged choughs,
  
• a lovely pied butcherbird, tame as you like,
• and pardalotes "caught in the act".

There's a lot more to discover on future trips to this lakes area.